Path Analysis with Vector Data Using QGIS

Introduction

QGIS is an application that is used for GIS (Geographic Information Systems) purposes that is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). This software is user friendly. It runs on Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OSX and Android. QGIS supports a variety of raster, vector and database formats and functions. The latest release is 3.10. It provides a continuous growing number of capabilities. It is provided by core functions and plugins. With QGIS, the user can manage, edit, conduct data analysis, visualize and create maps.

This tutorial will guide the user through the process of downloading data, adding it to QGIS and conducting the analysis to find sections on the path that connects to other path networks. In this tutorial, we will combine a variety of path networks and will find ways to access the main path through these networks. The goal is to find ways to access the main trail from different area within the city. This type of analysis can be used for any type of path analysis. In this tutorial, we will use the Rideau Trail as the main path that we are analyzing. The other paths that we will be using to access the Rideau Trail are city roads, cycling routes, paths and parks. The data that is used here are all open sourced data.

Objective

The objective of this analysis is to find locations along a section of railway infrastructure that are hazardous in that they could be areas prone to landslides or rockslides.

Data Used

The type of data that we will be using are Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and shapefiles. We will be using vector data for this analysis.

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References

KML

Cycling Network: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/cycling-network

Park Paths: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/park-paths

Road_Centrelines: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/road-centrelines

GPX

Rideau Trail https://www.rideautrail.org/discover-the-trail/maps/

Shapefile of Ottawa

Ottawa Neighbourhood Study (ONS) - Neighbourhood Boundaries Gen 2: https://open.ottawa.ca/datasets/ottawa-neighbourhood-study-ons-neighbourhood-boundaries-gen-2